I have a confession: sometimes I miss girlie things. You know I love my boys, but sometimes I wish I could buy the cute pink, sparkly things in the stores. So when we decided to donate some school supplies to Act Together Ministries, I secretly saw this as a chance to indulge in cute things. I had no idea it would turn into a great lesson in compassion.

So we took the boys to Target with a school supply list in hand. Then I told them we were going to buy supplies for a little girl. They were temporarily thrown off kilter, but it was so great hearing them talk about what "she" would like. Would "she" rather have a backpack with Disney Princesses or cute monkeys? "She" would like the notebook with hearts on it. Can "she" keep all of her supplies in this pink pencil case?The drop-off location for the supplies was an ice cream shop. Every good deed comes with it's reward, right?In the past, when we've shopped for donated items like this, we always went with the mindset of shopping for a boy the same age as Patriot and Azlan. But here, shopping for someone totally different than them, really seemed to build some empathy and compassion. Great surprise!